If you are interested in personal one-on-one coaching, we
offer an excellent program. Just call 1-800-578-3449 (toll free) and speak
with one of our coaching consultants who will discuss our programs and
budgets with you.

We do NOT offer a canned coaching program. Our program is tailored to you,
your experience and your budget.

And don't worry - you will not get a high pressure sales
pitch.

The 2017 update to The
Complete eBay Marketing System is now available on the members-only
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You will find the update in the Bonus Section.

Bank Account Fraud targets Amazon Sellers

There has been a lot of news about fraudsters targeting Amazon and Amazon
buyers primarily with credit card fraud. Lesser known are, aggressive
efforts that target seller's bank accounts registered on Amazon. Using a
combination of hacking and email phishing, the fraudsters are changing the
bank account you register with Amazon, so on the next payment date the
money Amazon sends you will go into their bank account instead of yours.

Your only defense against this is to change your password regularly -and
NEVER use the same password on Amazon, as you use with your bank account
and credit card accounts.

On May 11th, CJ Rosenbaum of Amazon Sellers Lawyer will host a
conference with industry leaders about The State of Amazon's Brand Gating
Policy & Protection. What's True, What's False & What Sellers
Should Expect going forward? You can register
here
.

This was originally a Facebook post by one of my readers. I asked him if I
could share it with you and he agreed.

I wanted to give your readers some insight to what I've gone through in the
past 5 months. I hope it motivates you and gives a different insight into
the eCommerce world.

Back story: I started my ecommerce journey in 2013. I went full time 2015.

Fast forward to 2016, and I am selling about 95% on Amazon FBA selling on
average between $30,000-$40,000 in sales per month.

I was doing mostly liquidation and OA and a tiny bit of wholesale.

I couldn't sell on eBay because my account was suspended. Long story short,
I wasn't selling enough and my metrics were too low. [Tip to new people
starting out: Accept every return and learn to live with it].

I started preparing for Q4 around September. Before I forget, my niche is
the electronics market. I also dabble in anything I can make money on, but
my expertise is electronics.

I had the chance to get some Xbox units in bulk and knew if I could get a
good price they would be prefect for Q4. I ended up buying 130 in total and
started selling them in September.

On October 28th, 2016 and I got the dreaded email from Amazon saying my
account was suspended. I attached my sales for the month of October. I
couldn't believe it, and it was at the worse possible time.

The reason for my suspension was I had to many rights owner
complaints. I ended up not being able to get my account back. Now before
people say you should use Cynthia Stine or some other service -I was in a
unique situation and didn't need them, as I had a "contact" who talked
straight to Amazon.

Another long story short -I knew better but don't trust anyone in business.
I could have used Cynthia, or someone else, and had two people working on
it but didn't think I needed her. However, I have used Cynthia before and
she got my account back online. I would recommend her services.

I imagine my sales would have been close to $35,000 in October. One thing I
should have done quicker, was get all my inventory shipped back to me.
Pretty much my only saving grace was I still had about 75 Xbox's left, some
laptops and monitions.

The higher dollar goods I kept at my house. Sales in November were only
$4,829, an 86% drop in sales. As you can imagine it was like a stock market
crash, except worse. It's hard to explain, but I was scared and I wasn't
-all at the same time. Lots of emotions and very stressful.

I then started to target other eBay and Amazon sellers to start to wholesale
to them. Fast forward to February sales were $20,862 with half of that from
wholesale and Amazon sales were only $1,907 or 10% of total sales. I now
average about $20,000 a month in sales.

The moral of the story is never give up. Always have some kind of
backup plan, and don't wait to develop multiple streams of income.

Feedvisor is the company I use for re-pricing - they have the best
algorithmic re-pricer on the market. They have just published a really
interesting study on the Amazon State of the market 2017. The study has
some very useful insights for Amazon Sellers.
Click here to read the study.

Be careful responding to Facebook messenger posts. I have heard several
reports this week that scammers are using FB Messenger to put Ransom-ware
on your computer. I honestly do not know if this is true, but it could be a
case of, "Where there's smoke, there is fire."

Amazon is promoting Amazon's Garage. Amazon Garage is a place on Amazon
where you can view, manage, and find parts for your saved vehicles.
Apparently, they are buying, or somehow getting information, on new car
sales, because Karen and I recently bought a new car -a very low mileage
used Ford Edge.

When I went to My Garage page on Amazon, it had a photo of our new vehicle
and information pre- filled, so I could go straight to search. OK - this is
pretty cool for sellers who sell auto parts and accessories, but I find it
sort of scary that Amazon can get this kind of personal information. We are
in the process of building a new home. I wonder how Amazon will get that
information and market to us.

I am in the habit of cruising some of the free classified sites because I
occasionally find an item I can get for free and flip on eBay for a nice
profit. Sometimes you see some really strange posts. I decided to take a
pass on this one.

eBay First Quarter Results fail to impress again. eBay US sales, what they
call (GMV) Gross Merchandise Volume, increased a measly 5% in the first
three months of 2017 to $20 billion. Overall revenue for eBay, Inc. grew
only 7% to $1.8 billion. Earnings (Non-GAPP, Non Diluted fell 2%.

Meanwhile, Amazon's results won't be out until next week -but analysts
expect sales growth to exceed 23% for the same period.

I have been selling on eBay and Amazon a long time, and importing for the
past 4 years, but I still learn something new every day.

Whenever I wanted something quickly from China -I would almost always tell
my rep in Hong Kong to send the items DHL. Well, DHL is a great service, if
you want something overnight or in 2 days. However, if you are willing to
wait 4 or 5 days, you can use ordinary air freight which is much cheaper!

When I order a new product, or re-order an existing product from China,
what I usually do is send part of the shipment air freight and the rest by
sea.

Here is an example: A few weeks ago, I reordered an item that I usually buy
in quantities of 1000. This product sells about 3 pieces per day. I ordered
200 by air which will last me approximately 66 days. I had the rest shipped
by sea.

Typically, my sea shipments take about 40 to 49 days, so that leaves me
with a nice safety margin. When I use air freight, my unit cost to ship is
about 95¢, but by sea, this drops to under 40¢.

Now to the difference between standard air freight and services like DHL
and UPS or FedEx. Remember those companies are package services
that specialize in rapid delivery.

The last time I shipped those same products via DHL, my cost per unit was
$1.40 versus 85¢ by normal air freight. I am not complaining about the
cost of DHL - its just a fact that DHL (and UPS and FedEx) provide a
different service than air freight - but people tend to confuse the two.

When you are shopping for air freight, don't trust your overseas supplier
to arrange it for you. One of the ways Chinese suppliers make money is to
mark up the shipping cost -or take a commission (kickback) from the air
freight company or broker.

Instead I would either use a local agent (Mine is
Bruce Wang), or hire
a Freight Forwarder (FF). A FF is a company that acts as your agent. Once
they know the weight, size, number of boxes and the product contents of
your shipment, they will contact several Air Shipment airlines and
companies and negotiate the lowest cost for you.

If you are going to import goods, you will also need a Customs Broker. A
Customs Broker is a service for importers that clears your goods through
customs. This involves the preparation of documents, calculating and paying
duties and excise taxes, and handling communications between your company
and the U.S. Customs service.

I use a company called
Universal Cargo.
I use them for three reasons. (Disclosure - I have NO affiliate relationship with
this company):

They are both a freight forwarder and a Customs Broker under one roof.
That really simplifies communications and Paperwork.

Their service and reliability are exceptional

They always get me the best price on shipping.

So the moral of this story is: When it comes to getting samples sent, or
ordering products to sell -the difference between 2 days and 4 or 5 days is
not that significant. Unless you really need something in 2-days, forget
the package services, and check out straightforward air freight.

I get a ton email from folks who live in other countries asking how they
can sell on Amazon US. I have written about this in the past, but that
information is out of date -so I thought I should cover it again. This way,
when I get those emails, I will just give them the link to this article.

In order to be eligible to sell on any Amazon platform you need to be
resident of one of the following countries, have a local phone number,
local bank account, Phone number Amazon can call during the registration
process, and have an internationally chargeable credit card. The countries
are:

Amazon used to restrict registration on Amazon US to just a few major
countries -but as you can see they have expanded the list.

You are probably wondering why some countries are not on this list? There
are two primary reasons - US policy and Fraud.

There are some countries that American individuals and companies are not
permitted to do business with (countries like Cuba, Iran and North Korea)
by law. As for fraud, Amazon restricts sellers from countries that are well
known for online fraud (Nigeria, Pakistan, etc.).

Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers is an optional service that
allows existing sellers on the
Amazon.com
website who have a bank account in
a country supported by Amazon
to be paid directly into their local bank account in United States
Dollars (USD), Great British Pounds (GBP), Euros (EUR), Australian
Dollars (AUD), New Zealand Dollars (NZD), Indian Rupees (INR), Hong
Kong Dollars (HKD) and Canadian Dollars (CAD). U.S. sellers selling on
other Amazon marketplaces
(amazon.ca,
amazon.co.uk,
amazon.de,
amazon.es,
amazon.fr, and/or
amazon.it) are also
able to get paid into their U.S. bank account, in U.S. Dollars (USD).
You can find more information
here.

You might think this is aimed at older folks, but it's not. Let's face it
-even though you may be young -you are getting older every day, and
frankly, young folks have as many challenges as older folks -just different
ones.

I am not going to tell you my age, but I have been selling online for 19
years, so you could say, I am getting up there. But what does this mean to
you as sellers?

We are going to look at both young and older sellers first -then I want to
say something about attitude.

Young Sellers

The biggest challenge younger sellers have is just that -you are young.
There is nothing wrong with that. When you are young, you have lots of
energy, have very few physical limitations, and are probably more attuned
to the world of high-tech than some older folks. On the other side -being
younger means you lack experience and the wisdom that comes with it.

Notice, I did not say young people are not smart -many of them are
not only smart -but super smart. The fact is -being smart in terms of
intelligence, is not that important compared to other traits such as being
clever, having creativity, and being persistent. A person of average
intelligence who will not give up, is far more likely to succeed than
someone who is super smart, but easily discouraged.

There is also the issue of work ethic. Don't get me wrong -there are plenty
of younger folks who have excellent work ethics (both of my sons come to
mind), but in general, a work ethic is something you learn and develop over
time. Yes, I am generalizing -I know there are plenty of exceptions to that
statement, but this is a newsletter article -not a grad school thesis.

Older Sellers

Before I get anyone upset -I am not talking about geriatrics, but people
over 55 (I am not saying 55 is old -just older than the younger folks I am
writing about). I said earlier that older folks have more
experience and wisdom. Due to their years they may have already owned, or
at least worked for, a small business. This gives them experiences and
skills that many young people do not have.

On the downside, many older folks were late to adapt new technologies and
social media. The other issue is their bodies. As we age, our bodies slow
down. In general, (again there are exceptions), as we age we can't lift and
carry as much as we used to, and we run out of steam sooner. Selling on
eBay and Amazon is not highly physical work -but you do have to
occasionally carry some heavy boxes.

So what can we do about this?

If you are a younger seller, the first thing you can do is expand your
social horizons to include some folks over 50 or 60. If these folks happen
to own a small business -that is even better. When you are around them do
two things:

Ask intelligent questions

Listen

If you are -or find yourself, getting older, start thinking about ways to
ease both the physical and time load of your business. Here is an example:

We used to sell mostly on eBay with a few items listed on Amazon that we
merchant fulfilled. On a slow day we would have about 15 items to pack and
ship and take to the post office. But, on a good day, that number could go
as high as 40. That is a lot of packages to wrap and carry to the post
office.

In 2006 we reduced the items we sold on eBay to just a handful of listings
-and of those, we tried to concentrate on items that were smaller and
therefore easier and less costly to ship. At the same time, we moved almost
100% of our Amazon business to FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). This meant we
only had to send our wholesale goods into Amazon in bulk. We no longer had
to make daily trips to the post office. Instead we called UPS who came and
took the packages off of our front porch.

About that time, I was at an Amazon seminar and discovered a company called
JoeLister.

JoeLister
is a service that lists your Amazon FBA items quickly and easily on eBay
(takes about 30-seconds per listing). When a product sells on eBay,
JoeLister does several things:

The system automatically creates a fulfillment order on Amazon, so
that Amazon ships the product to your eBay buyer.

When Amazon releases the tracking info,
JoeLister
automatically posts the tracking number into your eBay account.

If the item you sold was the last one in stock,
JoeLister
zeroes out the quantity available on eBay, so you don't sell something you don't have.

Joelister turned out to be so good, we were able to increase the number of
SKUs we were selling on eBay.

Moving into FBA had two benefits:

We no longer had to pack and ship several items every day -Amazon
did that for us

Once we made the move fully into FBA, our sales increased by a
factor of five X.

The other thing you want to do is find third party services that can do
some of the time consuming low-level tasks for you such as automatically
posting feedback on eBay, or automatically sending out feedback and product
review requests on Amazon.

Attitude

It doesn't matter if you are young or old, if you want to be successful,
then attitude is everything! The first step to have a successful attitude
is to learn to take 100% responsibility not only for everything you do, but
to also take responsibility for things that just seem to "happen" to you.

When something happens to you that was not seemingly your fault -it is your
fault because you didn't prepare for it. As Mark Cuban once said to a
candidate on Shark Tank - "Work like there is someone working 24 hours a
day to take it away from you." This means you should always be asking
yourself: "If ________ happened? What would I do?"

You can't anticipate everything, but you should try. The worst thing you
should do is stop blaming others for what happens to you. I am always
appalled when I look in on a Facebook group or see comments on a message
board like this:

"eBay (or Amazon) is such a rip-off that no one can make money."

"Amazon's fees make it impossible to make a profit."

"I do everything right and I still get shi++y feedback."

Comments such as these are nothing but sellers trying to shift the blame
for their failure to someone else.

No matter what your age, here are some tips to keep you centered and
successful:

Set Goals - Setting goals in one of the traits that almost every
successful person has. But it's not enough to set them; you have to
work on them also. Here are some tips about setting goals.

You need both long and short-term goals. Most importantly, the short-term
goals need to be designed to mesh with your long-term goals. Your goals
should be very specific - and measurable.

Setting a goal such as Keep growing my business, is meaningless.
However, a goal such as Find at least 5 new products to source and sell per month, is both
measurable and specific.

Most importantly, write your goals down and post them were you can see
them. It may also help to share them with your supportive friends and
family.

I also suggest you set personal goals. For example, a few years ago, my
wife and I were heavily in debt. This included two car loans, four credit
cards and a large home mortgage. We could barely meet our expenses.
Although we were self-employed, it was the equivalent of living
paycheck-to-paycheck. By setting specific goals we reduced all of our debts
to zero (except the home mortgage) within two years and we have paid our
home mortgage down to just about 30% of the original amount (and continue
to make double payments each month. That is just one example. You can also
set goals related to specific family events, or educational goals such as
take the kids to Disneyland, or learn a foreign language.

Avoid negative people and negative influences

If you are in a Facebook Group, or following a message board with
negative comments like those I listed above -find a new place to
hang out online

Believe in yourself and never give up

Don't become discouraged. Don't allow mistakes and setbacks to kill
your business (We all screw up. I have been at this for 19 years
-and still make the occasional goof.)

Keep experimenting and trying new things

Never stop experimenting, growing and fine tuning your business
(When some sellers reach a certain income level, they kick back and
relax - this is like saying: "Competitors come and get me."

Never stop learning. There is no such thing as "knowing it all."

Keep growing and reinvesting in your business (This makes it harder
for your competitors to succeed)

If something was successful (Product, strategy, etc.), and is no
longer working - try once to fix it. If that
doesn't work, move on to something else

Follow the rules. (A lot of sellers keep looking for a "quick fix,"
or a way around eBay and Amazon rules and policies. That is a good
way to lose your account.)

Lastly, whether you are young or older, look for someone you can work with
(They don't already have to be a seller). A few years ago at the eBay Live
event in Boston, I met one of the most successful seller teams I had ever
met.

The "team" was a mother and daughter. Mom was 55 or so and her daughter was
in her twenties. They were selling mostly on eBay with a few sales on other
venues. Between them they sold over $2 million a year with very nice
profits. And, at that time, they had only been selling on eBay for two
years.

This is an update of an article I wrote early last year. The reason I am
covering this again is, I continue to see Facebook posts and get email from
readers asking where they can find a prep center near them.

Amazon Prep and Ship centers are services, where you send your inventory to
them and they store it for you. They charge a storage fee, but their
storage fees are often less than what Amazon charges -but not always - so
check.

When you are ready to ship to FBA, your Prep&Ship center labels your
products and ships them to FBA for you.

With some of them, you have to create the shipment and email them the
labels. Others such as My Fulfillment Team will create the shipments for
you.

One of the best uses for a ship & prep center is handling shipments
from overseas. When I get a shipment from overseas, it might consist of up
to 1,000 items. Obviously, I don't want to send all 1,000 into Amazon at
one time (unless it's an item that sells over 25 units per day).

When you send goods into Amazon FBA, they start charging you storage right
away. And, if they don't all sell within 6 months, then you are assessed
the long-term storage fee. So, what I do is send my goods to my FBA Prep
& Ship Center and then send them into Amazon in quantities that match
the sales of that item. (Most Amazon Prep & Ship centers have storage
fees that are lower than Amazons').

5. How to Negotiate Exclusive Selling Arrangements for eBay and Amazon

I have written about this in the past, but I keep getting email from folks
asking how to do this - so here it is again (Updated and revised).

There are three major ways to win the buy box on Amazon:

Lowest price seller (including shipping cost)

Create a unique product (and listing) by bundling, or creating a
multi-pack

Be the only seller on Amazon (or eBay)

With eBay search there is no guarantee you will come up first in search
even if you are the exclusive seller -but your chances will be highly
improved. On Amazon, if your product is unique, you will automatically win
the buy box for that product when a customer searches for a product that
matches yours.

If you are the only seller of a specific item, then you have
no direct competition (on Amazon)

So how do you find and negotiate exclusive selling arrangements? Here is an
example of a deal I am involved in now.

Last year Karen and I attended the Seattle Gift Show - a wholesale show
open to resellers only (general public is not admitted).

In the jewelry section, we found a line of jewelry made by a small USA
company, and the owners of the company were in their booth.

We decided to place a small order (about $500 worth at wholesale). While
they were writing up the order, I started to chat with the owners. I
explained what we do, and asked them if they would give us an exclusive
deal for their product line on eBay and Amazon.

Here are the reasons I gave them:

Only so many of their products will sell on eBay and Amazon in any
given day, week or month. It doesn't matter if there is only one
seller of a given product, or a dozen. I also explained that
increasing the number of sellers, does not increase your sales, or
the size of the market.

Since we are the only seller, they could only deal with one
company. This lowers their costs. More so, since we are the only
seller, we usually place larger orders than if there were several
sellers

After we test the market to get a feel for the sales quantity over
time, we will agree to purchase a certain amount each year, so they
can predict their sales volume (In this case, once we did the test,
that amount came out to $4,000).

When a supplier has several sellers, they usually compete on price.
This can upset the supplier's brick & mortar accounts. When
retail stores see the same items they carry selling for less eBay
and/or Amazon, they get upset and may not reorder. But as the only
seller without competition, we can maintain a higher price so the
supplier will not upset their stores.

We work to protect their brand. If we see anything online that
cheapens or threatens their brand, we let them know. We also
register the brand on Amazon. (To do that, you will need a letter
from the supplier that says you are the only authorized seller). We
also set up a VERO Information Page on eBay. That way we can
monitor other sellers and inform the supplier if one of their other
sellers is impinging on our agreement.

While explaining this, be very nice and engaging so they like you --and
will trust you.

My readers ask "what kind of contract did we sign?" The answer is, we
rarely do that. In in most cases we work on a handshake or just exchange
emails laying out the details. Some of the important items you need to
address in the agreement include:

Length of the agreement (I usually suggest one-year with automatic
renewal and 30 days' notice by either party to quit after the first
year is complete).

A statement that explains you are the exclusive seller on eBay
and/or Amazon (or other sites)

We ask for a letter stating we are the exclusive seller so we can
register their brand on Amazon and make Vero complaints on eBay.

They inform their current and future retailers that they may no
longer sell on eBay or Amazon.

If they have a MAP policy (Minimum Advertised Price), we say we
will follow that.

If you agree to an annual amount of purchase to renew the
agreement, you want to say that. (Note - We don't agree to this
until we complete a market test to give us an idea of how well (and
fast).

As for the last item, do a market test before agreeing, so you have a god
idea of how much you want to commit to.

When you meet a supplier you may be tempted to ask the supplier to drop
ship or sell on consignment. I wouldn't try this as these are very
difficult deals to do. Just asking makes them think you are a real amateur.

The one exception to this is for very large and heavy products. When you
run into this, then it's all right to ask about drop shipping. We have an
exclusive selling arrangement on eBay for our large wood burning firepits
where the supplier dropships.

Remember
- not all of these websites show wholesale pricing and ordering
information. When you run into this, just use the contact form on the
website to request wholesale reseller information. Don't volunteer that you
sell on eBay and/or Amazon. If they ask me, I tell the truth, but I never
volunteer that information.

Smart Retailer
is a great magazine with many wholesale sources every month.
Click here
to receive a FREE, 3-year print and digital subscription to Smart Retailer
(US only, postage fees apply for International).

Sport Ear
is a company that sells one of the best and most respected line of noise
protecting earmuffs. They make both passive and active noise cancelling
models.

Seedling
is a toy company with some really unusual toys -many that are huge sellers.

Somersaults
is a healthy snack company who's snacks are gaining a following online.

Worker B
offers a collection of personal care products that emphasize the benefits
of raw honey, beeswax and bee propolis.

Candles & Quotes
sells a nice line of Soy Candles in glass with very interesting quotes on
them -everything from funny to thoughtful and spiritual.

Open Road Brands
partners with national brands from yesteryear and today to design authentic
and unique home decor products.

Red Wing Stoneware Pottery
makes promotional pieces for businesses and events all over the country.
They serve corporations, events, commemoratives, and communities with their
hand made products. If you sell on eBay or Amazon, think about creating a
product with wide appeal and offering it as the only .

Funatic
makes unique socks for men and women. Some are clean, some are dirty, some
are nerdy and some are naughty. Their designs also include socks that are
funny, collegiate socks, Political socks, Dogs, and more.

Please Note:
Some of the products and
services mentioned in this website, in articles, banner ads and
newsletters and blog posts are for products and services for which I
earn a referral fee or commission. We always evaluate anything we
recommend very carefully and each year we turn down literally dozens
of opportunities to recommend products or services where we can earn
a commission. Even though we earn a fee on some of our
recommendations, we only recommend products and services that we
feel will deliver good value and with rare exceptions, they all come
with a money back guarantee.